The Popcorn Stand: A graveyard for dying trends

Kudos to Michael Fry of Mamaroneck, N.Y., who decorated his yard for Halloween like a graveyard with 17 headstones depicting messages of the 17 pop culture trends that are dying out in 2017. It makes sense Fry would come up with this idea since he’s an art teacher.

Fry’s only 39, so he’s right in the middle of the different Generation X, Millennial, Baby Boomer, Baby Buster Generations. At the age of 52 I was stunned to find out I’m now a Generation Xer. I never even remotely considered myself a Generation Xer. I still consider myself a Baby Buster, although I’ve been told Generaion Xers and Baby Busters are the same thing. And there are those who consider myself to be on the tail end of the Baby Boomer generation. But I digress.

It seems to me while we all love taking shots at Millennials, Generation Xers enjoy critcizing Millennials the most. I assume that’s why there was a Survivor show Generation Xers vs. Millennials, which I didn’t watch.

But Fry did take a shot at Millennials in one of his headstones which had the message “Accountability (looking at you Millennials).” There was also a bubble with a Millennial quote “OMG it’s not my fault.”

Of course we all like to take shots at Millennials as just when I looked up this story I was talking about how Taylor Swift should stop blaming everybody else for her problems, follow her own advice and “shake it off.”

By the way a picture of Taylor Swift is also on one of Fry’s headstones as a dying pop culture trend. I guess us Generation Xers think alike.

Other dying trends include Ombre Hair which I have no idea what it is and didn’t know was a trend in the first place and dabbing, which I also didn’t know was still a trend. I thought dabbing was so 2013 when Colin Kaepernick was still a relevant quarterback — on the field.

Now if Fry had depicted on one of his headstones ESPN was a dying trend he really would’ve earned my respect. (I’ll use any excuse to take a cheap shot at ESPN).

Thanks to Fry, I might not be so embarrassed to be called a Generation Xer after all.

— Charles Whisnand